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RALEIGH, N.C. – After eight consecutive road games, the Saint Augustine's University women's basketball team was glad to be home on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. It showed in a 71-49 pounding of Bowie State University in their CIAA home opener in a packed Emery Gymnasium.

It was only the third home game of the season for the Lady Falcons, who took out their frustrations of two straight road losses on the Lady Bulldogs. Drawing energy from their fans, the Lady Falcons raced to their biggest win of the season. The 22-point victory margin is the largest for the Lady Falcons (6-7 overall, 2-2 CIAA) this season.

“The crowd was awesome,” St. Aug Head Coach Rachel Bullard said. “The fans gave us a lot of energy. They were our sixth man.”

Every Lady Falcon scored in the rout. Freshman guard Regime McCombs (Greenville, S.C.), the CIAA rookie of the week, led the way with 14 points. Freshman guard Jeanne Marie Wilson (Temple Hills, Md.) added 13 points, junior guard Ebony Spencer (Chesapeake, Va.) chipped in 10 points and freshman guard Porscha Walton (Chesterfield, Va.) added nine points for the Lady Falcons, who outscored the Lady Bulldogs 52-29 in bench points. Jasmine Jacobs scored nine points and Bria Robinson added eight points and eight rebounds for the Lady Bulldogs (4-8, 1-3 CIAA).

The Lady Falcons were coming off a tough defeat to previously winless Chowan University on Monday. They were down after the loss, but bounced back in a big way against the Lady Bulldogs on Thursday. The Lady Falcons were excited to play in front of their home fans, according to Bullard.

“I was very proud of our ladies from coming back after the loss to Chowan,” Bullard said. “One of the things we had to do was regroup. We re-focused and pulled together [against Bowie State]. We fought hard and played hard. The ladies were relaxed and had fun.”

The Lady Falcons took control in the final two minutes of the first half. They scored the last seven points to turn a five-point lead to 12 at halftime. The Lady Falcons led 31-19 at the break which was their biggest halftime lead of the season. The 19 points were a season low for an opponent in the first half.

The Lady Falcons really poured it on in the second half. The lead grew to 18 points in the first four minutes and they never looked back. Consecutive layups by senior guard Autumn Smith-Faulkner (Charlotte, N.C.), sophomore guard Jasmine Cuffee (Norfolk, Va.) and Wilson made the score 52-29 with under 10 minutes left. The Lady Falcons shot 55 percent in the second half while the Lady Bulldogs could only make 27 percent of their shots.

Defense and free throws keyed the victory. For the game, the Lady Bulldogs shot 27 percent including 3 of 24 from three-point range. The 49 points is a season low for an opponent.

“I challenged our girls after the Chowan game to step up our defense,” Bullard said. “We needed to contest and force [Bowie State] into the worse shot possible, and that's what we did. They shot a lot of threes, but they were contested threes. The girls did what I asked them to do on the defensive end.”

The aggression of the Lady Falcons showed at the charity stripe. They reached the free throw line 35 times, making 23. The Lady Bulldogs hit 12 of 21 free throw attempts.

McCombs was deadly at the charity stripe, making 6 of 6 attempts. Spencer was 6 of 8 while Smith-Faulkner, Cuffee and sophomore guard Li'Esa Barnett (Raeford, N.C.) were 2 of 2.

After being away from their home gym in nearly two months, the Lady Falcons savored this victory. It definitely gives this young squad (featuring five freshmen and four sophomores) the confidence it needs to compete in the CIAA. There are more home games to come in January, including Saturday's contest against Lincoln (Pa.) University starting at 2 p.m. It will be the second of five straight home contests for the Lady Falcons.

“At the end of the day, I was really proud of each of our ladies for contributing in some way,” Bullard said. “The bench was awesome. Actually, everybody was awesome.”

WAUG-TV will televise Saturday's game locally on Time Warner Cable 168. Fans can follow the game via live stats on www.saintaugfalcons.com.